Patti Smith met with the Pope during a private audience at the Vatican, according to an official announcement released by the Holy See on Friday. The 79-year-old American singer-songwriter, poet, and pioneer of the punk rock movement does not belong to any religious denomination, yet she maintains a long-standing cultural and artistic relationship with the Vatican.
According to the Holy See Press Office, the private audience took place without further official details provided regarding the agenda. Smith, who hails from Chicago just like the pontiff, has crossed paths with the Vatican on multiple high-profile occasions over the past decade.
The relationship between the punk icon and the Catholic Church includes several notable artistic collaborations. Earlier, Smith recorded an extensive prayer to the Virgin Mary for the Vatican’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Her past Vatican engagements also feature a performance at one of the traditional Christmas concerts hosted annually in Vatican City. In 2013, she met Pope Francis briefly on the sidelines of a general audience shortly after his papal election.
The Vatican audience followed two recent open-air concert performances by Smith in Italy, where she played in Milan and at the historic Circus Maximus in Rome, according to concert schedules reported by the Catholic News Agency (KNA).
FAQ
- Did Patti Smith convert to Catholicism? No, according to the Vatican and biographical sources, Smith does not belong to any religious denomination.
- Why did Patti Smith meet the Pope? The Vatican announced a private audience on Friday, though organizers did not disclose specific topics discussed during the meeting.
- What previous work has Patti Smith done with the Vatican? Smith previously performed at the Vatican’s annual Christmas concert and recorded a spoken-word prayer to the Virgin Mary for the Vatican pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
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